


Falling in the Snow

by AllieSuperwholock



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: AU in last chapter, F/M, Marauders, Marauders' Era, jily
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-23
Updated: 2014-11-23
Packaged: 2018-02-26 16:44:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2659130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllieSuperwholock/pseuds/AllieSuperwholock
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>James Potter, notorious for trouble, convinces Lily Evans to go on an adventure with him. This "adventure" causes major peril (not to mention discomfort and conflict) but ultimately ends up in a new- however short lived- love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Of Broken Limbs, Falling Snow, and Animagi

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is going to be five chapters long, about 2,000 words each. Let me know what you all think, and leave it in the comments. This was originally a collaboration with my best friend, so the first 3 parts aren't entirely mine but the last two parts will be. I'm going to post a single chapter every two-ish days, based on the response I get....yadda yadda yadda. Alrighty. Read on, darlings.  
> Disclaimer: Harry Potter isn't mine.

Lily

 

I couldn’t believe that I had been so stupid. We were already in the worst situation I could imagine, and now I had gone and gotten myself hurt. As soon as my leg is better, I swear I am going to murder James. It was all his fault for getting us into this situation, anyways.

This had all started two days ago. I was sitting in the common room working on my homework for Potions when I overheard James and his friends talking about something they wanted to go explore. I had tried to ignore them, but as Head Girl, I knew that it was my duty to keep them from doing something that would get Gryffindor into more trouble.

“Hey Evans, guess what?” James had shouted across the room. “We found something awesome. Want to go exploring with us?”

“No thank you, James,” I had told him in reply.

“Oh, come on. It’ll be fun. You never have any fun. This will be good for you.”

“Ugh, fine.”

“Really?” James sounded surprised. Was I really that rude to him?

“Yes, if it will get you to stop pestering me.” Looking back, that was really harsh. Maybe I should have been nicer to him. “But I have to finish my Potions essay first. You need to work on yours, too.”

“Ouch,” James had said. “Kill joy much?”

“James!” I had reprimanded. “We have N.E.W.T.’s this year, plus, I’m in the Slug Club. Professor Slughorn expects all of my work on time, and I intend to comply. You can’t slack off on your work. Finish your work, then I’ll go with you to explore your… thing.”

Eventually, I’d managed to convince James to work on his essay, and him and his friends were quiet. Before long, it was just them and me left in the common room. Peter, one of their group, had already gone to sleep, but Sirius, Remus, and James were all still up. I could tell that they had all given up on their work, but I had been too immersed in my own to notice.

“Hey Evans,” James whispered. “Everyone else is gone. Let’s go.”

“James,” I sighed. “I really don’t think we should do this.”

“Come on, Evans. You agreed, remember?”

“Fine. But if we get caught, I’m telling whoever sees us that you guys kidnapped me, and that I have no part in this. I’m just coming along to make sure you don’t do anything too stupid.”

“Sure,” James said. “Moony, Padfoot, let’s go. Come along, Evans.”

 

⤔ ⤔ ⤔

 

“Evans, how are you holding up?” James truly looked concerned, but I was still mad at him for getting me into this situation.

“How do you think, Potter? We are currently in the middle of a snowy forest, none of our wands are working, and to add insult to injury, I now have a broken leg. So to answer your question, I am not holding up good.” I sighed. “Sorry, bad day. Can you help me up?”

“Um, Lily?” Remus said cautiously. “I don’t think that’s a good-”

“OW!” I tried to stand up, but the second my foot touched the ground, an insane pain shot through my whole body. “Guys? I don’t think I’m going to be walking anywhere soon.” 

“Remus did try to tell you…” Sirius scoffed under his breath. He was often impatient with me. I did, however, like him better than James. James Potter was arrogant and a bully. I fell back into the snow. 

“Potter,” I said, “Won’t you at least brace my leg? I really would prefer it not set crooked.” 

“Whatever you say, Lily,” he sneered sarcastically. He told Remus to quickly go find two big branches, meanwhile shredding the bottom of his cloak into heavy strips. Sirius fiddled with his wand, willing it to anything. When Remus returned, he and James set my leg in a makeshift cast of sorts. It was better than nothing, and although I tried my hardest not to cry James wasn’t being particularly gentle and it stung like a thousand needles through all of the tissue and muscle in my leg. If we hadn’t been in the snow, I would have sworn I was aflame. 

“Better, Evans?” he asked, again sarcastically. 

“Yes, James. Thank you.” I nodded and sat up, “And since none of you with the exception of Sirius is doing anything to figure out how to get out of here, I’m calling the shots from now on.”

“Like hell you are, Lily,” Remus said. 

“Give me one reason why I’m not the most qualified.” 

“Because!!!”

“Not good enough, Remus. I’m Head Girl-”

“And I’m Head Boy,” James interjected. “That puts me as your equal. So we can both make the decisions.”

“Fine.” I frowned profusely. He had a point, and I didn’t like it, which was often the case. 

“For now, we need to make a shelter. Then two of us can go searching for other people; a town, a house, something like that while one of us stays with Lily and searches for food in the area.” Sirius and Remus agreed, as did I eventually. We all removed our cloaks and lay them out in a circle, leaving a small space for a fire below the shelter the boys had constructed. James put his cloak over top the makeshift shelter to catch snow because the leaves wouldn’t, and he and Remus helped me into the shelter. 

“I’ll stay here with Evans, if you two will go searching for civilization of some sort. Be back by dark. You should have a while.” James said. I smiled at them. I was grateful it wasn’t just James and I because there was too much to do and I was currently useless. 

“In the meantime,” James continued, “I’ll try for a fire and look for something edible. Keep trying your wands, too.” 

“Sure thing,” Sirius said, and smiled back at me. 

“We’ll see you soon then,” Remus waved, and they walked north into the deep woods. We luckily, had landed in a clearing, and so we had a little room. Currently I lay in the back of the little shelter, toying with my wand much like Sirius had done earlier. Nothing was happening. It was as if our magic was gone. 

2 Hours Later, Sunset

It was beginning to get dark. The trees had begun to fade into the dark sky, and you could tell it would be cold. I could see James’ breath as he exhaled frustratedly, trying to get a fire going. I was shivering slightly.   
“Alright there, Evans?” he asked. He was being a little bit more polite than when the boys had been there, and I liked this James just a little better than the one I was used to. 

“Yes, I’m fine, it’s just a little cold,” I replied. 

“Here,” He said as he stood up and pulled off his button-down, long sleeved Gryffindor sweater. 

“No, James, it’ll just make you colder. And you need to save energy,” I protested.   
“Please, Lily.”

“I….” I hesitated, and then decided to be more polite than normal. I had been thinking, and I realized I was probably a little harsh to him. I felt bad.

“Thank you, James.” I finished, sitting up and putting it on over my own as he handed it to me. Noticing his Head Boy badge still pinned on the front, I took it off and handed it to him. 

“Keep it in your pocket,” I said. Our fingers brushed each others as I handed it to him. He looked away, blushing. 

“Thanks,” was all he said. I let it go. 

Later, after James had finally got a fire started, he sat and warmed up while I lay and thought of Sev. Up until our fifth year, we had studied together every Wednesday. But now, he was just so different. Always spending time with Rockwood and Dolohov, who were known through the school as being wannabe Death Eaters. Maybe if he wasn’t friends with them, I would be studying with him instead of here with a broken leg.

“Lily?” James’ voice was even softer now, like the sarcastic boy was someone else entirely. “How’s your leg?”

“Well, all things considered, I guess it could be worse. I can’t really feel it anymore. Thank you, by the way, for the jacket.”

“Yeah,” he said quietly. “Well, it was my fault for getting you in this situation. I really am sorry.”

“James, it’s fine. I chose to come along with you guys. You didn’t force me to.” I laughed bitterly at myself. Me, Lily Evans, had somehow gotten stranded in forest with the only people in Gryffindor I didn’t like. Why couldn’t I have been better friends with people who were more sane, so I would have something better to do on a Friday night? Just then, Remus and Sirius came clomping back through the forest. They were covered in snow, and their faces were grim.

“What’s the news?” James asked.

“We didn’t find anything except for an old abandoned cabin a few miles that way.” He pointed through the trees to a dark area up ahead. “I guess that’s our best bet, because there sure as hell isn’t anything else out here. No people, no towns, and our wands still don’t work. Remus had a funny experience with trying to Apparate, didn’t you Moony?”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Remus growled. “James, can you carry Lily? We want to try to get to that cabin before it gets any colder, and it will be too dark to see soon.”

 

James

 

By the time we reached the cabin that Padfoot and Moony had found, it was long past dark and the temperature was below freezing. Lily was almost asleep, despite our attempts to keep her awake, and she was shivering uncontrollably. If we didn’t get her warm soon, she would get hypothermia, and none of us had any way of helping her. We had collected our cloaks from the shelter, and she had hers around her, plus mine over the top of her, but my two idiot friends were too selfish to offer theirs. I knew they would if she really needed it. Moony took over trying to make a fire, and was fairly more successful than Padfoot and I. 

“Eh, Prongs,” Padfoot said, “Ya know how they used to keep warm in muggle mining days?” 

“What?” Moony said. Neither of us had any idea how he knew anything about muggles. I chuckled a little. 

“They used to get naked, down their knickers, and huddle under a blanket. Body heat was the only way to keep warm….” Padfoot snickered. 

“No!” I said, “I’m really worried, she’s really getting sick. So stop making wisecracks and go get more pine needles to feed the fire.”   
He really could be immature sometimes. That being said, so could I, but I knew when was appropriate and when wasn’t. Damn Sirius Black and his 13 year old brain. I scooped Lily up and brought her over near the fire, close enough to keep warm. 

“James….” she said. 

“Yes?” I asked. 

“It’s cold in here, I’m cold.” 

“I know Lily, I’m sorry. How’s your leg?” I was aware of Remus watching us instead of tending the fire. She didn’t answer, and when I looked back to her she had fallen back asleep. Or out of consciousness. I wasn’t entirely sure. 

“Where’s Padfoot?” I asked Moony roughly. I, the fantastically smart James Potter, had just had another of my famously genius ideas. 

 

Remus

I was thoroughly convinced that Prongs was bonkers. Absolutely nutty. 

“Okay boys,” He said, with that smirk on his face, “I have a plan.”

“Of course you do,” Padfoot said sarcastically. “You always do, and they always work, too.”  
“Oh shut it, Padfoot. You don’t even know. But we really have to get Li- Evans, I mean, out of here before her toes start turnin’ blue. She’s cold and her leg is broken in at least one place. So I say me and Padfoot here use our wonderful Animagi gift, and take turns carrying her. Moony, you can keep yourself human if you don’t mind. See, we could be far by morning, where we could stop again and boil some water and find some food; I’m not sure about you, but I’m starving. Then, when she’s a little stronger, we can start up again. We’ll find a town that way, quick, and we can surely find someone with magic. It’s better than this.” 

My jaw dropped. There was no way that would work. They were not strong enough to carry her on their backs, no way. And what about me? I’d be frozen before morning. James kept talking. 

“Me and Padfoot here wouldn’t need clothes. So you’d take most of his so you wouldn’t die, and she’d take the rest of mine so she wouldn’t either. It’s practically foolproof. Whaddaya say, boys?” 

No way.


	2. Of Kisses, Rabbits, and Conflict

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is chapter 2! Hope you like it, I'm not sure if it's longer or shorter than the last chappie....Alrighty, leave me comments. Mwah!   
> Disclaimer: Still don't own Harry Potter.

James

 

“Uh, James?” Moony said hesitantly. “Not that your plan isn’t a good plan or anything, but it just isn’t a good plan. For one, there is no way Padfoot can carry Lily while he’s a dog. He just isn’t strong enough.”

“Hey!” Padfoot interjected.

“Sorry,” Moony said. “But also, she could slip off of your back and fall into the snow, injuring herself more. Furthermore-”

“Okay, I get it,” I told him. “But we have no food, no heat, and no magic. So if we don’t think of something soon…” I faded off, but Moony and Padfoot seemed to understand my point. We were out of options on what to do, and if we wanted to get out of this, we would have to work fast.

“Uh, guys?” Padfoot spoke up. “We have a little bit of a problem here.”

“Padfoot,” Moony groaned. “What did you do?”

“Actually, it’s more of what I didn’t do. I can’t switch. No dog, just Sirius.”

I groaned. 

“Let me try,” I said, determined to make it work. I pulled my shirt off and felt the bitter cold sting my bare skin. Exhaling, I willed myself to be Prongs, the other James, the one that was a stag. Nothing happened, so I tried again and was met with the same result. 

I was afraid. 

Morning

It was finally a little warm. The sun was out, and Lily was finally awake and sitting by the fire. Padfoot and Moony were out looking for food. We were all desperately hungry. 

“James, at least take your cloak from me. You’re shivering.” Lily said from in front of the fire. I was standing at the window.

“No. You should’ve seen yourself last night...Lily, I was afraid, honestly, that we might lose you.” 

“Don’t be overdramatic, James.”

“I’m not. You were shivering madly, and your teeth were chattering so hard I was afraid they’d be cracked when you woke up.” 

“Well they aren’t, I’m mostly fine.”

“Mostly. How’s your leg, love?” It slipped out. I didn’t mean to call her love like that, it just happened. But she just blinked at me from her spot on the floor and smiled a little.

“I actually enjoy your company when your friends aren’t around. Now I can tell why you’re Head Boy. We’re more alike than I would have thought.” 

“I suppose. How is your leg, though?” I was embarrassed. 

“I can’t really feel it, honestly. It just feels puffy and when I move it like it’s full of pins.” 

“Let me look,” I said. I could still feel the heat in my cheeks. 

“Alright,” she said and moved my cloak off of the top of her. As I

approached her, I could tell that even in the splint her leg was horribly swollen.

“The swelling is probably normal,” she said, more to herself than me. 

“I’d like to readjust it just case.” I said. 

“Please leave it be. I don’t want to hurt like the first time.” She pleaded.

“Trust me.” I was still embarrassed, but unlike every other time I’d said something like that, she didn’t scoff at me. I guess she wasn’t so bad, after all.

“Fine,” Lily said, gritting her teeth. “Just get it over with.”

“Okay. Don’t worry,” I reassured. “I’m sure it won’t hurt too much.” I carefully reached out to her leg and gently prodded it.

“OW!” Lily howled. “James! That hurts!”

“Sorry,” I grimaced. “I’ll try to be more careful. But I really don’t have any idea how to do this. I’ve never exactly had to worry about Muggle healing.”

“My sister broke her arm once, when we were younger. I don’t remember what the doctor did to it, though.”

“Well, we’re just going to have to try our hardest, then,” I said firmly. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, but nevertheless, I tried to look confident.

 

Lily

 

I sighed and mentally slapped myself, berating myself for not knowing more about this. I had spent the first eleven years of my life living without magic. Suddenly, a sharp pain shot through my leg. “James! What’d you do that for?”

“Sorry,” he said meekly. “You weren’t paying attention, so I tightened it. Does it feel any better?”

“Um…” I wiggled my leg a little. “I guess. It mostly just feels numb, though. Thank you for helping.”

“Yeah, no problem.” James was being really quiet, and I couldn’t help but think that something had changed between us. Before this year, he was arrogant, always strutting around the castle like he owned the place. I would never have been caught dead willingly talking to that James. But now, he seemed different. More mature. I actually enjoyed getting to know this James, and there was a part of me that would be disappointed if we got back to Hogwarts and just went back to our normal lives. 

 

Sirius

Something was…different. I noticed, right away, that Prongs had a fuzzy look in his eyes. He didn’t seem as concerned about getting food anymore, and he kept checking Evans out. Checking her out. I didn’t even get it. He hated her guts, most of the time. More important, though, we had found food. A small rabbit, and one of it’s babies. It wasn’t much, really, but it was nourishment and right now I knew I needed some; the circles under my eyes were dark enough and set so deep in my face I could feel them when I tried to smile. 

“Food, everyone!” I grinned. 

“What did you get?” Evans asked. She sure had brightened up too, I observed. That sort of gave me the creeps, I mean Moony and I had only been gone 45 minutes. It’s hard to make a full recovery minus the broken bone in that amount of time. And Prongs- he was being so…quiet. He was acting like studying James, or Head Boy James, not Prongs. Not the Prongs I knew, at least.

“Two rabbits, one of them is pretty small and the other is it’s baby. But hopefully they’ve got some meat under the skin. We can take about half each, I think. It’s better than nothing.” I answered. 

“I agree, Sirius. Should we eat now or save them for nightfall to keep us warmer through the night?” Evans asked. She was full of questions, wasn’t she? It annoyed me a bit. She was too independent, I decided. 

“We’re eating now, Evans. I’m starving. We haven’t eaten in 52 hours, and we all look awful and we’re going to die. Shelter isn’t all that matters in a situation like this.” 

“Sirius, I understand, but we’ll need more energy for the cold nights than we will for the warmer days. Pack those rabbits in snow and we’ll eat them tonight. We can boil snow and drink that to stay hydrated throughout the day, and then eat the rabbits before we go to bed.”

I couldn’t believe that she was just taking charge like this! If it weren’t for her, we would have been able to move way faster and farther.

“James, you’re being awful quiet,” Moony observed. “What say you on this?”

“Sorry?” James asked, looking up.

“Do you think we should eat the rabbits now, or save them for later?” I reiterated for him. That Evans girl had addled his brain, and I didn’t like it.

 

James

The next morning, I went off with Padfoot to look for more food. We had eventually decided to save the food until before we went to bed, which irritated Padfoot beyond belief. Something about him was off, and I couldn’t figure out what it was. He seemed cranky and was snapping at everyone. Normally, though, he was happy and joking. His irritation was directed at Lily, and that irritated me. She wasn’t all that bad, and he needed to give her a chance. 

“Why do you hate Lily more than usual lately?” I asked, breaking the silence. He was leading me to the place the found the bunnies yesterday. 

“I don’t hate her. I think she has no right to take charge is all.” 

“We all agreed with her and I have authority also, Padfoot. We are Head Boy and Girl after all.”

“Since when does that matter to you? And since when have you called her Lily?”

“Since now, all of it. She isn’t half bad.”

“You’re right, she’s all bad. I just don’t like her. You spend too much time with her by that stupid fire, anyway.” 

“You’re jealous, aren’t you, Padfoot?”

“What would I be jealous of, Prongs? You being infatuated with a total know-it-all who hates me just as much as I hate her?”

“She doesn’t hate you. In fact, I think she liked you best until you yelled at her.”

He just growled and stormed further up ahead, yelling back at me, “Just go back to the cabin and tell Moony to come help me. He’s quieter than you, and a better help, anyway.” 

“Whatever.” I grumbled and stormed back to the cabin, yelling at Moony to go find and help him, since apparently I knew nothing. Moony gave me a questioning look, and I shot an angry one right back. He left. 

“What happened?” Lily asked quietly. I could see her leg was less swollen than before and her cheeks were their normal red again. I really didn’t feel like answering her question, though. 

“It doesn’t matter.” I said simply, trying not to be rude. 

“Yes, it does. We’re all a team here, James.” I sat down facing her, next to her outstretched leg, pulling my own cross-legged. 

“We may be, but Padfo- I mean Sirius, definitely is not on it.” She put her hand on my shoulder. 

“I think he’s just tired. We should give him room and let it go for awhile. It will work itself out.” 

“I suppose so. Let’s talk about something else.” 

“I wish we had a refrigerator to keep our food cold in. Or at least electricity.” she smiled, changing the subject for me. And then she smiled bigger, laughing a little. It was nice to hear laughter. “I forgot, you don’t know what electricity is. Let me explain-” 

I cut her off. “Electricity is a versatile power source that muggles use. It can flow from one place to another, to power tools or to create light. When electrons move, they can carry a charge from one place to another. This is called an electric current. Some things, like the metal copper, are better conductors of electricity than others. An element like sulfur, for example, couldn’t carry a very good electric charge or current.” I looked up, slightly embarrassed by my outburst. I read lots of muggle study books and just plain muggle books, so that someday I could impress her with my knowledge of where she can from. I didn’t realize my rather subconscious plan had worked until she smiled slightly, leaned forward, and kissed me. 

“Sorry,” was all she said when we broke apart.

“For what? I don’t mind.”

“Oh. Then I’m not sorry.” And we kissed again. When we kissed, I forgot she had a mangled leg and that we were in a dirty, abandoned cabin in the middle of nowhere. I forgot that Padfoot was jealous, and I didn’t think of how much more jealous he would be, and I forgot that we were both starving and dehydrated and somewhat emaciated. I just thought that it was okay, that I was kissing Lily Evans, and that she really wasn’t that bad of a person after all. For the first time since Wednesday night, I was alright. 

 

Lily

 

After I kissed James, I forgave him for all the nasty things he and his friends had done to me, and especially to Sev. I forgave him for being arrogant and conceited, and I silently thanked him for being willing and good enough to change. For the first time since Wednesday night, I was alright. 

 

Sirius

 

When Moony and I got back to the cabin, this time with three little rabbits, something had definitely changed. It was bigger than the other change. First of all, I observed, Evans and Prongs both had these tiny little smiles on their faces. Like they were keeping secrets. Second of all, he was sitting very close to Lily, and tending the fire, reaching over her lap. And she absolutely didn’t mind that their knees were touching. I scowled at Prongs first, then looked over at Moony, who was wearing a confused expression. Prongs spoke up first. 

“What’sup, mates?” He asked.  
“Nothing. We got three rabbits, and we are eating now, so move.” I snapped.


	3. Of Werewolves, Fear, and Intuition

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Same as always, leave comments, Love you all! Thanks for reading, I will have the next few chapters in a few days...thank you for reading, wonderful readers! As always, let me know what you think.   
> Disclaimer: Still...Don't...own....Harry Potter....

Remus

I had no idea what day it was. Maybe we had been in this forest for five days, maybe fifteen. The moon had been full shortly before we had gotten stuck here, but if we didn’t find a way out soon, there was a very high chance that I would change.

 

Lily

A week or so after James and I kissed for the first time, Remus decided that we needed to find the thing that brought us here. That was how I was telling time now. The day after James kissed me, in the days after he kissed me, before James had kissed me. He hadn’t seemed too different, but he had probably kissed dozens of girls before.

“Hey, uh, Evans? Uh, I mean Lily?” Sirius cautiously approached me. He hadn’t said a single word to me in days, and before that it was only to snap at me.

“Yes?” I asked hesitantly.

“I, um, was wondering if we could, maybe, talk?”

“Well, it’s not like I can get up and walk away,” I said drily. “What do you want to talk about?”

“I, well, I want to apologise. I’ve haven’t been acting very nice,” he laughed. “At all nice, I guess. I’ve been terribly rude to you, and I’m sorry.”

“Thank you, Sirius. If you don’t mind my asking, why did you decide to apologise now? You’ve been perfectly fine with ignoring me before now.”

“Sorry.” He looked sheepish. “Moony, that is, Remus brought it to my attention. He told me that I shouldn’t be mad at you, because the reason I’m mad isn’t your fault. So, um, sorry. Again.” Without another word, he ducked his head and headed out of the room.

“Sirius, wait!” I said. “Why exactly are you mad at me?” 

He hesitated. “Well, I just… I’m a little jealous.”

“Of?”

“You and James, spending so much time together.”

“Sirius, I…” 

“It doesn’t matter what you think of that, because it isn’t your fault, and I’m not mad anymore. Leave it alone.” 

This time when he left, I did not call him back. I was a little stunned that he was so jealous about something so immature. He couldn’t expect James to not grow apart from them (He, Remus, and Peter) eventually. Currently I was alone in the cabin. This was not usually protocol, at least one person stayed with me at all times, but not tonight. I couldn’t help but wonder why, especially because it was nearly past dark. 

 

James

Moony was going to change. He told us he could feel it, that he knew it was happening, and that there was nothing he could do. We had to think of something. I pondered this for two or three nights, Lily’s hand in mine a warm comfort as I thought about us running out of time for Moony.

 

Moony

“We need to tell her.”

“No, we don’t. We have no idea how she will react.”

“I don’t care. I can’t keep a secret like this from her. I don’t care how she reacts.”

James and Sirius were debating over whether to tell Lily about my ‘condition’ or not.

“Guys,” I said quietly. They stopped arguing. “Shouldn’t it be my decision if we tell her or not?”

“And what do you think we should do?” Sirius asked me. “Do you think that because she knows us, because she is so close to James, she will just accept it? Accept you?”

“No,” I said stubbornly. “I don’t know what she’s going to do. But we should tell her. Sooner rather than later would be better.”

 

James

About an hour after Moony decided to tell Lily, we went to the cabin to actually tell Lily. I was slightly trepidatious, not sure how she would react to one of my best mates being a bloody werewolf, but I knew she had to be told in case he did turn in the next few nights. Plus, we could use her smarts to help us devise a plan for keeping him locked up and not changing or killing one of us. Sirius might not believe it, but telling Lily was the best thing to do in the current situation.

“Lily,” I said quietly as we walked into the cabin. “Are you awake, love?”

“Yeah,” she said, smiling as she looked up from the fire. When she saw our grim faces, though, her smile dimmed. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, love. It’s Moony, er, Remus that we need to talk to you about.”

“Okay,” she said cautiously. “What about him?”

She looked at me to explain, then turned to Remus when he started to talk.

“Well,” Remus said slowly, “The thing is, we might be in a spot of trouble soon.”

“Why is that?” Lily asked suspiciously. “What did you do?”

“It’s not anything I did!” Remus protested. “It’s just that it might be a full moon soon. And, I’m a-”

“Werewolf,” she finished. The three of us looked at her in astonishment.

“How did you know that?” Sirius demanded. “No one else knew, except for...” he trailed off, and anger showed on his face..

“Wait, how?” I asked, trying to recall if anyone could have found out. Then, the answer popped into my head. “Sniv- er, Severus. He told you, didn’t he?”

“Yes,” Lily explained. “He wanted me to turn you in or something, but at the time I wasn’t talking to him, so I didn’t believe him. After that, though, I kept a closer eye on you. I started to notice you disappearing once a month, and realized that it was always on the full moon. But it wasn’t like you were hurting anyone, so I decided to keep quiet about it.”

“How long have you known?” Remus asked her.

“About a year,” Lily replied.

“A year!” Sirius exclaimed.

“You said that you noticed us disappear,” I said slowly. “But how did you know that Remus was the werewolf? It could have been any one of us.”

“Your nicknames, obviously,” Lily told us. “You guys call him ‘Moony.’ It wasn’t that hard to figure out that he was the werewolf from that.”

I’m never actually sure if she’s above average or below it, because when I listen to her words she seems a million times smarter than everyone, no matter what. My judgement is clouded. Even so, these observations (and the fact that she didn’t “turn us in”) amazed me to no end. I was beginning to wonder, the trepidation leaking like an ink spill across parchment, slowly but suddenly, if I loved her.

“Why didn’t you turn us in?” Padfoot asked, voicing our worst thoughts. “You’ve never liked us. It would have gotten us all in trouble.”

“I didn’t want you guys to get in trouble,” she told him, as if it were that simple. “Severus was always talking about how Remus was a werewolf, and honestly, after we stopped being friends, I didn’t want anyone to know that he was right. Also, Remus is my friend. Even though I may have never liked you, Sirius, I didn’t want him to have to go galavanting around on the full moon all on his own.”

We all sat, quiet, after that. I could see a sheen of tears over Moony’s eyes, and a cloud of acceptance over Lily’s, and that’s when I knew. I loved her. How could I not when she was willing to protect us and accept us even when we hadn’t always done the same for her? 

 

Moony

“Thank you, Lily,” I said, wiping my eyes quickly. Never before had anyone (other than Moony, Padfoot, and Wormtail) ever accepted me so wholeheartedly without thought. To most, I was a freak. Even to myself most of the time. So when someone thought of me as normal and just let me be, I was flabbergasted and touched. 

Evans really was something, and chuckling under my breath, I supposed we were all lucky to have her there to start to straighten James out. 

 

James

We continued the routine two more days, a resolution never finding us. Moony was beginning to scare me a bit. He clenched his fists and sometimes looked at us like raw steak. Lily’s leg was healing, and she could walk now (With a shotty pair of makeshift crutches) but I absolutely forbade her from leaving the cabin. I think she was secretly glad about this. She got to stay by the fire all the time, and none of us did. 

I wondered why Wormtail wasn’t looking for us, because surely he knew we were gone. We were with him constantly, he must miss us at least a little. I laughed to myself. Maybe we were right and he really is just dense. 

 

Moony

I could feel it in my bones almost ready to explode. I hadn’t gone without wolfsbane pretty much ever, and this was unnerving. Usually it felt like this right as I transformed; it was an ignition of pure, feral, animalistic instinct and rage that took me over. It had never built like this before… creeping out of my heart and slowly infecting my whole body so I knew it was there, and so that I would feel it with dread every time I moved.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was shorter than the rest, I know, sorry about that. It was a good cliffhanger place to end, and it just felt right. The next one will be longer, promise promise! Thanks!

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you loved it, lovelies. Let me know whatcha think!!! Thanks for reading, mwah xoxoxo!


End file.
